Perspective Expert insights on a timely policy issue Open Science: The citizen’s role and contribution to research Elta Smith, Sarah Parks, Salil Gunashekar, Catherine Lichten, Anna Knack and Catriona Manville pen science can be thought of as a movement or an process, from idea generation, planning and design, through to the evolution in the research process. It relates to how outputs and impacts of research further along in the process. Oscientists interact with one another and how the Linking these changes towards openness is a shift in our public engages with and is engaged in science. It also understanding of the role of science in society that, some have relates to societal expectations about the imperative to share results argued, is bringing back values that have been overshadowed in – particularly those obtained through publicly funded research. In modern science, such as a spirit of exploration (Lichten et al. 2014) practical terms, open science can be seen as a systemic change in the and an appreciation for sharing knowledge (Könneker & Lugger way research is conducted, affecting steps throughout the research 2013). Digital technology has enabled radical changes in how we Figure 1: Steps in the research process Idea Planning/ Fund/ Outcomes/ Research Outputs generation design commission impacts communicate, travel, consume and create (Schindler et al. 2013), and the related implications for science are significant and impor- Citizen science is both an aim and enabler of tant to understand. Potential benefits include science becoming open science more inclusive, democratic and relevant to society (Kroes 2014). At its best, open science could help break down barriers between teur scientists were recognised experts in their field, conducting disciplines and between science and society, as well as speed up distinguished research (Miller-Rushing et al. 2012). For instance, the scientific process by tapping in to the critical mass necessary to Charles Darwin embarked on The Beagle as an unpaid companion generate ideas and facilitate falsification of theories (Popper 1963). to its captain, and not as a professional naturalist, and Benjamin Franklin was a scientist and inventor, as well as a statesman, printer What is citizen science? and political theorist (Silvertown 2009). As science became more An important feature of open science relates to the public taking a professionalised, amateur scientists became increasingly sidelined, more active role in science, which involves a set of activities that is but citizen science never disappeared (Miller-Rushing et al. 2012). often referred to as ‘citizen science’. Citizen science is both an aim In recent decades, citizen science has gained renewed prominence, and enabler of open science. It can refer to citizens ‘doing science’– boosted by technological advances and digital tools, such as mobile contributing at various points in the research life cycle (Figure 1), applications, cloud computing, wireless and sensor technology, and including gathering of resources, defining research questions, collect- developments in simulation and gaming, which enable new modes ing data, analysing data, disseminating results and even evaluating of engagement in research (Bonney et al. 2016). a project’s success (Newman et al. 2012). Citizen science can also This new wave of citizen scientists has begun to fill two key mean greater understanding of science on the part of the public, niches: research projects that investigate questions of scale beyond made possible through developments in digital technology that allow a professional scientist’s resource capacity and those that answer greater access to information about the research process, such as the questions that professional scientists may not undertake on their ability to use open research data or download open access journal own due to challenges related to the site of the study or because articles. Citizen science can also refer to the ability of the public to the question may only be of interest to a narrow audience (Miller- understand science and engage with scientists, through more open Rushing et al. 2012). communication in the form of blogs and social media. And citizen A recent survey of 173 citizen science projects in Europe, science can also refer to the public being engaged in policymaking conducted by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research through, for example, agenda setting for research systems. UFZ/ German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Citizen science is by no means a new phenomenon. Two Halle-Jena-Leipzig, found that citizen science activities span a wide hundred years ago, almost all scientists earned a living through range of disciplines (Hecker et al. 2017), although the majority are another profession (Silvertown 2009), and many of these ama- in the life sciences (Figure 2a). Approximately half of the projects 2 Figure 2: Survey results of European citizen science projects1 A What is the primary subject area of the citizen science project? Life Sciences 131 Natural Sciences 13 Arts and Humanities 12 Engineering Sciences 10 Social and Behavioral Sciences 7 Number of projects B What is the primary level of engagement of citizen scientists in the project? Contributory 87 Collaborative 47 Co-Created 20 Collegiate 8 Contractual 2 Other 9 Number of projects Legend Contributory projects are designed by professional researchers, with members of the public primarily contributing data. Collaborative projects are designed by professional researchers, with members of the public contributing data as well as helping to refine pro- ject design, analyse data and/or disseminate findings. Co-Created projects are designed by professional researchers together with members of the public. At least some members of the public are actively involved in most or all aspects of the research process. Collegiate projects are run by citizens with no involvement from professional researchers. Contractual projects are conducted by professional researchers at the request of members of the public. (Adapted from Shirk, J. L., H. L. Ballard, C. C. Wilderman, T. Phillips, A. Wiggins, R. Jordan, E. McCallie, M. Minarchek, B. V. Lewenstein, M. E. Krasny, and R. Bonney. 2012. Public participation in scientific research: a framework for deliberate design. Ecology and Society 17(2): 29.) 3 C Sources of project funding by share of overall funding reported by all respondents(estimated) 28% 23% 18% 11% 19% Public (EU) Public (National) NGO Lottery* Other (regional and local government funds, and crowdsourcing) * Lotteries are organisations that award grants with funds from (generally national) public lotteries. surveyed involved citizens providing data, while the other half are educational benefits emerging from pilot citizen science projects involved citizens helping to refine project design, citizens co-creat- with young people, such as a project in Spain where students at ing projects, or citizens running projects entirely, with no profes- Molins de Rei secondary school investigated how the colours of sional scientist involvement (Figure 2b). More than 50 per cent of their school walls affected educational performance (Ruiz-Mallen the funding for these projects came from public sources, either at et al. 2016). Students who took part described being motivated by EU, national or local level (Figure 2c). the challenge of the study and reported that their attitudes towards Emergent findings in the recent literature about the impact science and their negative stereotypes of scientists had changed, of citizen engagement with scientific research point to trends in with some considering a career in science and technology. Students long-term community-level involvement, increased adult civic also reported increased confidence in their abilities and noted that interest, and improved understanding and collective mobilisation the project reinforced the notion of scientific progress as a collective to tackle global challenges, such as climate change. Other impacts process (Ruiz-Mallen et al. 2016). identified include improved social well-being, the empowerment One of the best ways to understand the role of citizen science of communities to influence local environmental decision making in scientific research is through specific examples of projects or ini- (Newman et al. 2012), and the increased representation of women tiatives, such as the effect on students at Molins de Rei of engaging and minorities in the scientific process (Groulx et al. 2017). There in a scientific research project. Recently, RAND Europe developed a ‘monitor’ to track open science trends in Europe, to support the European Commission’s policymaking approach to open science There are educational benefits emerging (RAND 2017; European Commission 2017). As part of this work, RAND Europe developed a set of case studies on citizen science from pilot citizen science projects with projects to show the breadth of initiatives and the diversity of ben- young people efits that citizen science has brought (see examples below). 4 Examples of citizen science projects Foldit (https://fold.it/) Zooniverse (https://www.zooniverse.org/) Foldit is an online game enabling players to solve puzzles in order to Zooniverse is a public web portal where people from around the world predict protein structures and to thereby contribute to research, including can assist professional researchers with scientific projects, with the results the development of potential new drugs. Citizen scientists are engaged